Abstract
My paper proposes an agenda for possible dialogues between the southern cone´s recent history and the cold war studies. The recent history field, written mainly by southern cone´s historians, related to the history of the second half of twenty century has focused mainly on the national scenarios of political and social polarization that emerged during the sixties, the authoritarian reaction that installed state terror regimes, and, lastly, the human right struggles for democratization during the eighties. These historical studies have innovated in their historiographical methods, in the ways to conceive the relationship between culture and politics, and also in the understanding of the tensions between historical discourse and public memories. Beyond these innovations these studies seems to be trapped in the national spheres without exchanging on the similarities and circulation of ideas and persons that happened within the region. On the other hand the cold war studies, written mainly in the US, that worked on the region has mainly focused on the impact of the US foreign policies. Although these studies addressed the local dimensions, they mainly focused on the questions related to the role of the US without considering the agency of local actors in this global process. Between these two fields of study there are historical vacuums related to transnational spaces of horizontal circulation of ideas and actors within the region that has been mainly disregarded by both historiographies. Through some historical examples I will suggest ways to intersect both fields of studies in order to enrich the reflection on the Latin-American cold war.
Keywords:
Latinamerican Cold War; Transnational History; Global History; Historiography; Recent History